ART is domination. It's making people think that for that precise moment in time there is only one way, one voice. Yours. #MariaCallas

When the curtain rises, the only thing that speaks is courage. #MariaCallas

I don't think much of my talent. Uh, I didn't even think I had a voice... I always used to sing for pleasure. I never even dreamed of having to have a career as a singer. #MariaCallas

You always have to be the performer and function of the composer that the public will listen to and you must make it success. #MariaCallas

Real friends are very special, but you have to be careful because sometimes you have a friend and you think they are made of rock, then suddenly you realise they're only made of sand. #MariaCallas

The Metropolitan, like all of the other opera houses, do offer me every year a contract. I would specifically ask for a very fine conductor... lots of rehearsals... #MariaCallas

You learn the role. You will roughly learn it. As I say, because these goes in stages, you cannot expect to learn it immediately. You have to give it time to be learned to be matured. #MariaCallas

Love is so much better when you are not married. #MariaCallas

I dislike when critics treat me so cruelly because I know exactly what I do – I even know what I do worse! – I tear myself even more to pieces. I dislike being told that I should do this or I should do that. I know far too well what I should do. #MariaCallas

I have to feel what I do. I have to like people to be with them. I just cannot learn the art of being a hypocrite. I wish I could. #MariaCallas

We are not creators. We are performers. #MariaCallas

Being honest is a hell of a price to pay, you might be... misunderstood, hated, attacked and I have not been able to fight back. It hurts... because it is unjust, the world is full of unjustness... #MariaCallas

I am embarrassed by compliments. I cannot have the same perception of myself as the public has. I cannot judge myself and I have a hard time realizing what I have done. But if you manage to persuade and to thrill the public then you have won. #MariaCallas

We serve this unique art – the music most of all. It takes a lot of worry and a lot of anguish. It was left to us as a heritage and we must carry it on against all odds – even at our own health’s cost. #MariaCallas

The public is a monster and that is why I am not eager to return to the stage. #MariaCallas

I don't think much of my talent. Uh, I didn't even think I had a voice... I always used to sing for pleasure. I never even dreamed of having to have a career as a singer. #MariaCallas

What I learned from Sarafine was that you must serve music, because music is so enormous and can envelop you into such a state of perpetual anxiety and torture, but it is our first and main duty. #MariaCallas

In my poor words technique should be the equipment that one has in being able to to interpret. You learn the solfege, you learn the harmonies, you learn music. Then you learn how to interpret. #MariaCallas

That is the difference between good teachers and great teachers: good teachers make the best of a pupil's means; great teachers foresee a pupil's ends. #MariaCallas

Even though I did not like my voice I learned to accept it and to be detached and objective. My voice is unique as is everyone’s. It is not how we sing but the uniqueness we bring – like the way we walk or talk…one’s own unique persona. #MariaCallas

I would not kill my enemies, but I will make them get down on their knees. I will, I can, I must. #MariaCallas

They have taught me, and life has taught me that the last act is the most important, because, no matter how much and how well you've sung on the very few one or two or three to four first acts. #MariaCallas

Some say I have a beautiful voice, some say I have not. It is a matter of opinion. All I can say, those who don't like it shouldn't come to hear me. #MariaCallas

When music fails to agree to the ear, to soothe the ear and the heart and the senses, then it has missed the point. #MariaCallas

We serve this unique art – the music most of all. It takes a lot of worry and a lot of anguish. It was left to us as a heritage and we must carry it on against all odds – even at our own health’s cost. #MariaCallas

The critics said that I was tired at the end of Traviata but I took it as a compliment because I struggled to find this tired quality for her and it's dangerous. #MariaCallas

You learn the role. You will roughly learn it. As I say, because these goes in stages, you cannot expect to learn it immediately. You have to give it time to be learned to be matured. #MariaCallas

Don't talk to me about rules, dear. Wherever I stay I make the goddam rules. #MariaCallas

On the whole there are two people in me. I would like to be Maria, but there is the Callas that I have to live up to. #MariaCallas

Opera is dead. It's outdated. And there's nothing you can do about it to change it. As singers if the composer did something bad, it's your responsibility to give it some coloratura, but that's all you can do. #MariaCallas

It takes a little more time to get into the role, but not very much more. In making a record you don't have the sense of projection over a distance as in an opera house. We have this microphone and this magnifies all details of a performance, all exaggerations. #MariaCallas

When you learn to really become a musician after a singer, you have to put your instrument to the service of music. #MariaCallas

I belong to the givers. I want to give a little happiness even if I haven’t had much for myself. Music has enriched my life and, hopefully - through me, a little - the public’s. If anyone left an opera house feeling more happy and at peace, I achieved my purpose. #MariaCallas

Some say I have a beautiful voice, some say I have not. It is a matter of opinion. All I can say, those who don't like it shouldn't come to hear me. #MariaCallas

I prepare myself for rehearsals like I would for marriage. #MariaCallas

What am I? Is she only machines singing? No, she's a human being. I need help too. Life they say is terrible. Of course life is terrible, if we make it that way. #MariaCallas

We cannot modernize opera too much because as it is, we must accept it, which is old-fashioned. We must give it a bit of fresh air and cut certain lengthy music repetitions. #MariaCallas

In the theater, you can get away with a very large, very grand phrase. For the microphone, you have to tone it down. It's the same as making a film, your gestures will be seen in close-up, so they cannot be exaggerated as they would be in a theater. #MariaCallas

I don't think much of my talent. Uh, I didn't even think I had a voice... I always used to sing for pleasure. I never even dreamed of having to have a career as a singer. #MariaCallas

Being honest is a hell of a price to pay, you might be... misunderstood, hated, attacked and I have not been able to fight back. It hurts... because it is unjust, the world is full of unjustness... #MariaCallas

When the curtain rises, the only thing that speaks is courage. #MariaCallas

If you take the trouble to really listen with your soul in with your ears you will find every gesture there and it's so true. #MariaCallas

On the whole there are two people in me. I would like to be Maria, but there is the Callas that I have to live up to. #MariaCallas

Opera is dead. It's outdated. And there's nothing you can do about it to change it. As singers if the composer did something bad, it's your responsibility to give it some coloratura, but that's all you can do. #MariaCallas

You always have to be the performer and function of the composer that the public will listen to and you must make it success. #MariaCallas

I don't know what happens to me on stage. Something else seems to take over. #MariaCallas

I am not an angel and do not pretend to be. That is not one of my roles. But I am not the devil either. I am a woman and a serious artist, and I would like so to be judged. #MariaCallas

Don't talk to me about rules, dear. Wherever I stay I make the goddam rules. #MariaCallas

If you really care to look into the music, it was always. We will always find a trill or an embellishment or a scale that justifies an expression of feeling of happiness or unhappiness of uneasiness anxiety. There is always a reason for such thing. #MariaCallas

Forget that you're singing - and these are the values - respect the values we try to be free for a minute. If you spoke these phrases, how would you speak them according to Bellinis style. #MariaCallas